Reflections on an (impossible) escape from capitalism

It was an ordinary Friday evening. The parcel had arrived with the courier that morning, but I only opened it after dinner, with that silent ceremony I perform every time new hardware shows up – as if opening a box too quickly were a form of disrespect toward the object. Inside was a HUNSN 4K. Small, almost ridiculously small. A mini PC in a form factor that fit in the palm of a hand. I put it on the table, looked at it. Looked at it again. And then an uncomfortable thought occurred to me. I had ordered it from a Chinese reseller, paid with a credit card, through a completely traceable payment infrastructure, from one of the most centralised and surveilled commercial ecosystems in existence. To build a homelab that would let me escape centralised and surveilled ecosystems.

[...]

https://write.as/jolek78/reflections-on-an-impossible-escape-from-capitalism

Lately, I’ve realized what truly matters to me:

living naturally without forcing myself,
following my own aptitudes,
using my individuality to contribute to society,
and cherishing time with family and friends.

Life is richest when flow, focus, and relationships are respected.

#LifeByDesign #LoFiLife #DigitalMinimalism #MindfulLiving #SelfHost #HackerEthic

I’ve been running a small self-built app with an old friend for 10 years.

It tracks my mental state using quick slider-based pairwise comparisons and generates an egogram in about 10 seconds.

Over a decade I’ve collected enough data for long-term patterns.

It’s a quiet tool that helps me understand and regulate my mind.

#SelfHost #IndieWeb #QuantifiedSelf #LoFiTech #HackerEthic

I want to build my own app to reclaim the flow of my life.
I want to live on my own terms again—without noise, without platform-driven rhythms.
It doesn’t need to be perfect like a polished product.
It just needs to be mine, and able to grow with me.
My freedom is living by my own law.

#SelfHost #IndieWeb #DigitalMinimalism #LoFiTech #HackerEthic

My Manifesto for Human Augmentation through Technology

- Use tech for humans, not the machine.

- Externalize memory — link thoughts, grow patterns.

- Amplify senses: see, hear, feel beyond limits.

- Build tools for insight, not just data.

- Create under constraint — that’s freedom.

- Keep knowledge open, shared, remixable.

- Design tech to deepen, not replace, thought.

- Protect ethics, curiosity, imagination.

#HumanAugmentation #HackerEthic #DigitalDIY #SelfHost #Zine

🔖 An interesting article for today:

Modern life depends on the habit of discarding things. What if we fixed them instead?

https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/sustainable-living/in-praise-of-repair-culture

#makehackvoid #repairculture #makerspaces #HackerEthic

A massive Electronics Wednesday night at the space

🏗️ Things that we worked on:

Fixing an electric toothbrush

Tinkering with a gas heater (winter is here in Canberra 🥶 )

Upgrading the space's TAZ5 3D printer to a new motherboard and user interface

Learning about soldering

Tinkering with a Creality CR-10S from the University of Canberra Workshop 7 makerspace

#makehackvoid #electronics #ElectronicWednesday #HackerEthic #hackerspace #makerspace #repairculture #canberra #3dprinting #fpv

🛠️ Go out and Make Hack Void

"In a moment where machines churn out mediocrity, make something yourself. Make it imperfect. Make it rough. Just make it.

Be yourself.

Be imperfect.

Be human.

Care."

📘 From this excellent article:
https://dansinker.com/posts/2025-05-23-who-cares/

By:
@dansinker

#makerspace #makehackvoid #makerspaces #hackerspaces #hackerspace #HackerEthic